MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
... please
I need a new computer, or at least motherboard & processor (& memory) cos our oldest one is beyond any help
Plan is to get a decent board, processor & ram and move the bits about so mine is "good" and the spare/kids' one is useable. Suppose I'll need a graphic card too, since the old one is all-in-one and they don't
seem that common any more
(windows 7)
I don't play games - at all
I do fart about quite a bit with big spreadsheets and I also sometimes do video editing (sony vegas is the software) and also edit BIG images from time to time
Beyond that, I just browse the www and email etc & sometimes watch video or stream music (suppose one day I might link the pc to the satellite dish & watch/record from that)
I don't have much patience so I'd like to do these things as fast as "possible" within the bounds of common sense. I also can't be arsed renewing bits all the time so I want it still to be useably quick at least in 3-4 yrs so don't mind buying fairly posh parts now to let it live with newer software as that comes along
Seems to me that "good" stuff now involves mutli-core processors but I'm not sure that'll make any odds to my intended usage (will it?)
So, up to about an intel i5 processor and 4g memory (but only if needed) - what do I need for best performance in the stuff I do on it ?
Is there a 1 or 2-core chip that might be better for me or is that shizzle going to be obsolete soon (or already) ?
How posh a graphic card do I need (no games)?
What is the max RAM I can put in (I heard 3 or 4gb)?
Anything else? - is the next great thing just about to come out & I should wait for it ?
Thanking you...
Right....
Editing large photos and videos means you'll definitely need plenty of memory. These tasks [i]should[/i] benefit from a multiple core processor. Fast hard drive is also good (or even multiple drives as a RAID array, or a solid state drive).
Max RAM is 4GB unless you go for a 64-bit OS like Windows 7 64-bit edition, then you can put in as much as the mobo can support.
Graphics: if you're not playing games then you don't need anything cutting edge. Your existing all-in-one will be fine (assuming it is PCI Express). Many motherboards will have built-in graphics anyway.
how much do you have?
Something like [url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DELL-Precision-690-XEON-2-x-2Ghz-DUAL-CORE-4Gb-500Gb-XP_W0QQitemZ350294108297QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item518f27e889 ]this[/url] would be ideal. Add a second hard drive (those systems have raid on motherboard) and your sorted.
What are you prepared to spend? It can influence your decisions quite dramatically...
And are you definitely going to run Windows 7? And if so, are you going to be using a 64 bit version?
Personally, for your usage, I'd buy an all new off the shelf machine and put a low end GFX card in it as this will be the most cost effective way of upgrading... Should cost you less than £300, possibly just over if you include the cost of Windows 7.
Or you could go the other extreme and build as "future proof" a machine as you can... Go for a core i5 or i7 setup with a 3GHz Quad Core processor, 12Gig or more of RAM, top end GFX card and god knows what else! It really does depend where you want to go!
You can still get decent Core 2 Quad processors (run on older socket 775 motherboards) for pretty cheap (and you probably won't notice them being any slower than an i5 or i7!), RAM to suit will be MUCH cheaper than for an i5 or i7, and it's probably the most cost effective way to upgrade still in my opinion... Not quite as future proof, granted, but you'll get the most performance for your £'s, and it'll still be pretty quick in 3 years time.
Oh, and RAM up... If you're running a 32 bit OS, install 4Gig... It'll only recognise 3-3.5Gig as this is the max a 32 bit OS can use, but it makes a difference. If a 64 bit OS, well... Minimum 4Gig... It might not be worth installing 8Gig, but then again it is cheap!
And even if you're not playing games, a low end GFX card can still make a fair old difference over inbuilt GFX even for simple tasks such as surfing the internet, or watching a DVD. Would suggest an NVIDIA 9500 or 9600GT perhaps, at least the flash ads on the STW forum won't slow your computer down like they did my old one! 😉
I built this a couple of months ago:
£177.38 x 1 - Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
£114.77 x 1 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£85.21 x 1 - AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
£73.90 x 1 - Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£69.56 x 1 - Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz TwinX Dual Channel (TW3X4G1333C9)
£37.38 x 1 - Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710 Laser (967670-1120)
£17.38 x 1 - Samsung SH-S223LBEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£17.38 x 1 - Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM
£16.51 x 1 - LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
You could skimp on the graphics card easily. I really like a nice big monitor. 1920x1200 is lovely!
Ah, cheers (been for a curry)
To clarify:
Don't really need another screen (mine's 1600x1200 - deliberately not widescreen) and the kids don't need a flash one at all. There's nothing wrong with my case and it has a newish 650w power supply
graphics - by all-in-one I meant it's built into the motherboard and so do need to buy new graphics (either built in or off a card)
Was planning to get just board, chip and memory (& graphics if not built in) & plug it into my existing case, then put my old bits into the kids' machine. I currently has newish discs in mine, running as the raid type that has both drives recording the same stuff (like instant back-up) - I'm guessing that's not a fast option but helps me feel my data are protected
Video & image editing - yeh, I guessed that might push me towards posh stuff. I don't do it that often, so don't need "pro" speed, just quick
I was thinking about a i5 chip and 4gb ram - reckon I can do that for about 300 quid. Would > 4 really be noticeable (assuming the system could use it) ?
What's the downside of 64bit? - apart from letting me spend more on memory? Will it network with "normal" machines in my house?
(I'm currently on the free windows7 - beta thing that runs out early next year so will end up buying a version of W7)
I've seen comments about graphics cards doing the manipulation of vids/images better than even the best processors - how posh would it need to be to achieve that?
As above, dual-quad core chips and plenty of memory are nice to have at editing photos/videos. You can skimp on your graphics card but you will always be much better off with a dedicated card as opposed to a motherboard machine.
2GB of RAM as a minimum (it is cheap nowadays), 4GB is rather cool and probably enough for the time being. 2x2GB chips so you have a few more slots open for future upgrade.
A fairly basic mobo for the new i7/i5 processors is sufficient - something like the GA-55 from gigabyte. The i5 750 should also cover you pretty well and a HD 4550 from ATI is perfect if you don't play games - EVER 🙂
I have been using a hackintosh which I made out of a pretty bog standard PC. Did that a little while ago and have the system updated all the way to 10.5.4 I think. After that it became too much of a hassle to keep it up to date. I am not sure if they have managed to get away with updates from Apple. Even if they have you have to make a habit to check the updates every time to see if a specific one will mess up your installation.
Frankly I wouldn't use it as my main machine (I don't, I have an MB Pro for that I have the hackintosh just for playing about with.)
What's the downside of 64bit? - apart from letting me spend more on memory? Will it network with "normal" machines in my house?
it will network fine. Only slight downside is that some older hardware may not have 64-bit drivers for it, so won't work. But this if you're putting together a new machine then this is unlikely to cause an issue.
Normal (ie non-driver) 32-bit software will run on it just fine.
Also, iirc, older 16 bit software won't run on a 64 bit OS, whereas it will run on a 32 bit OS... Though to be fair, any 16 bit software kicking about is going to be nigh on ancient! Worth checking though if you do use any applications that are many many years old and specifically want to keep.
There is little or not point installing any less than 4GB of RAM (use 2x 2GB chips as stated above, it will be cheaper and allows you more room to upgrade in the future) as you would be saving barely any money by fitting 2GB or RAM instead, but losing a lot of extra performance. If you've got 4 RAM slots on the Motherboard, doubling the 4GB to 8GB might be worth it purely cos you'd be able to be confident about leaving your video editing software doing its thing in the background whilst surfing the internet, or doing other things, at the same time. Time was that upgrading your computers RAM was about the most expensive upgrade you could do in terms of bang for buck... These days it's probably the cheapest! Of course you will definitely need the 64 bit version of Windows, but there really is no excuse not to anyway now.